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Article published February 25, 2013

Horse options exist

GG
Miriam McCaslin Eau Claire

I have good news for Roy Andrews, whose letter, “Step up, horse lovers,” was printed in the Feb. 17 Butler Eagle.I hope Andrews is not a horse owner, but if he is and wants to get rid of that old horse that probably has carried him down the trail for years, he can see it end up on someone’s dinner table or in a can of dog food.We have auction houses that cater to meat dealers. The one in Pennsylvania is at New Hope; then there’s one at Sugarcreek in Ohio.Then he can happily pocket the money he gets for his former trail buddy and go get a beer.Of course, the horse will have to be loaded onto a tractor-trailer and hauled to a slaughterhouse and run through a chute to, well, slaughter. Of course, that will be in Canada.Any horse meat, as people have been hearing on the news lately, that comes from the United States is not safe for human consumption, since we over-medicate our horses like we do ourselves.Overbreeding is one of the biggest problems we have — from the people who are too cheap or irresponsible to spay or neuter their dogs, to the racehorse industry, which contributes thousands of unwanted horses every year.Preventing horses from breeding is much easier than preventing cats and dogs from reproducing.Finally, I do not know where Andrews was buying hay, but I am a senior citizen and have kept horses all my life and never paid $7 for a bale of hay.Go to round bales; they went up in price but still are affordable.I have put down an old horse here on my farm. It was not that expensive, and I felt my old mare deserved a dignified end.What does Andrews plan to do with his unwanted dogs? There are places where they too can become dinner.